Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK
For members

INSIDE GERMANY

Inside Germany: New summer train schedule, psychic sea lions and Swabian neat-freaks

From an aquatic oracle predicting the outcomes of Euro 2024 matches to some important changes on German trains, here are a few things we're talking about this week.

Published: 15 June 2024 11:43 CEST
Psychic sea lion at Leipzig zoo
Psychic sea lion Hilla with her handler at Leipzig Zoo preparing to predict the outcome of the Scotland v Germany match in Euro 2024. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Hendrik Schmidt

Inside Germany is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in Germany that you might not have heard about. It’s published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article.

Deutsche Bahn releases new schedules and updates for summer

The vacation period is just around the corner, and many of us are already planning day trips and holidays around the country – possibly with the €49 Deutschlandticket in tow. If you’re planning to travel by train, it could be worth taking some time to get familiar with Deutsche Bahn’s new schedule and changes for the summer months. 

Unfortunately, the news is a little bit mixed, since Deutsche Bahn is seizing the opportunity while many are off work to carry out some badly needed renovations on busy sections of the railtrack. That means you can expect some disruption from July 16th until August 12th on the Cologne to Frankfurt Airport high-speed line, and journeys on the Riedbahn between Frankfurt and Mannheim are set to take an extra 30 minutes. From August 17th, upgrades on the popular line between Hamburg and Berlin will delay journeys between the Hanseatic city and the capital by around 45 minutes each way. 

It’s not all bad news though: along with its new summer schedule, Deutsche Bahn also announced it would be adding new high-speed trains to its international routes and has unveiled a range of juicy offers for football fans during Euro 2024. The physical Bahncard is also being phased out entirely, but you can easily add a digital version on the DB Navigator app. 

Tweet of the week

The excitement was palpable in the German capital for the opening matches of Euro 2024, and in true Berlin style, no expense was spared in the decorations.

Where is this?

Oracle sea lion at Leipzig zoo

Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Hendrik Schmidt

No, this isn’t German goalkeeper Manu Neuer with a new haircut – it’s Hilla the sea lioness predicting the outcome of the opening Euro 2024 match at Leipzig Zoo on Thursday. According to the slippery oracle, Scotland was likely to score in the first half before Germany equalised in the second at the kick-off game on Friday. The ‘predictions’ were made on the basis of the Californian sea lioness’ own goal-scoring record. If she keeps it up, we think she could be in the running for a golden boot.

Did you know?

We all know that Germans like to keep things ordentlich, but nowhere takes it to such extremes as the southern German region of Swabia. Though many of the stereotypes about this region are less-than-flattering, one aspect of the local culture that Swabians can be proud of is their knack for keeping things clean and tidy.

Swabians are so keen to keep their houses in order that they even have a tradition known as the Kehrwoche, or sweeping week, in which neighbours take it in turns to clean communal areas. This was historically done on a Saturday afternoon in preparation for Sunday, but there’s no legal stipulation in Swabia to clean at a particular time. 

READ ALSO: Thrifty Swabians and haughty Hamburgers – A guide to Germany’s regional stereotypes

That said, the Kehrwoche is so ingrained in the Swabian mentality that people in Stuttgart or elsewhere in the region may well find a clause in their rental contract setting out when (and what) they’re expected to clean. So next time you’re in that part of southern Germany, be sure to look out for spotless doorsteps and streets. 

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

INSIDE GERMANY

Inside Germany: Becoming German, European election vote and the Scottish ‘Mannschaft’

From what we can expect from voters at the European elections to what citizenship means to foreign residents and the Scottish take on the German word 'Mannschaft', here are a few things we're talking about this week.

Published: 8 June 2024 10:15 CEST
Inside Germany: Becoming German, European election vote and the Scottish 'Mannschaft'

Inside Germany is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in Germany that you might not have heard about. It’s published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article.

What can we expect as Germany goes to the polls for Europe?

On Sunday, EU citizens living in Germany will cast their vote to elect a new European parliament. 

A lot has changed since the last elections were held back in 2019 – the UK has since left the EU (meaning no Brits in Europe can vote unless they have an EU citizenship), we’ve experienced a worldwide pandemic and war has broken out in Europe. 

The big story of 2019 from Germany was the Green surge. 

Although the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU) received the largest share of votes (28.7 percent), the Greens won more than 20 percent of the vote in Germany, increasing by about 10 percent from 2014.

Support for the conservatives and the Social Democrats (SPD) dropped considerably. 

So what can we expect from voters in Germany this time? 

According to recent polls, the conservatives are likely to secure a victory on the German side of things. The CDU and CSU will scoop up around 30 percent of the vote, according to surveys.

poster urging people to vote

A giant poster announcing the upcoming European elections, on the facade of the European Parliament building in Strasbourg, eastern France. Photo: FREDERICK FLORIN / AFP

Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s centre-left SPD, on the other hand, is only polling between 14 and 16 percent. 

The poll figures for the Greens have fluctuated. The INSA institute reported in April that the Greens could receive 11.5 percent of the vote. But recent polls show the party receiving between 13 and 15 percent – a significant drop from 2019. 

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has also lost support. While pollsters INSA predicted the party would take 22 percent of the vote back in February, recent polls put them on 14 to 17 percent.

Meanwhile, the Free Democrats (FDP), currently in government with the SPD and Greens, have been hovering between just three and five percent in polls since the beginning of the year.

Aside from these well-known parties, there are also a number of smaller ones.

If you’re eligible to vote, who will you be choosing? Good luck at the ballot box and make sure to check The Local’s coverage as the results come in. 

READ ALSO:

Germany in Focus podcast

After devastating floods in Germany that have claimed lives and cause huge destruction, we talk about how communities are coping and the areas most at risk of flooding on this week’s podcast. We also get into predictions for the European parliamentary elections and answer a reader question on how much you need to earn to qualify for German citizenship, 

With the UEFA Euro 2024 tournament coming up on June 14th, we share some interesting facts about the stadiums involved and talk about the importance of football culture in Germany with guest Kit Holden. 

What does German citizenship mean to foreign residents in Germany?

With the new citizenship law coming into force later this month, we asked The Local readers to share their feelings about citizenship and the process in a questionnaire. More than 100 people filled out our survey in just a few days and were delighted to hear about the different experiences. 

In the first of our articles, we looked at what securing a German passport means to residents. 

Of 121 readers who took our survey, 81 percent intend to apply for citizenship, while 12 percent are still unsure. 

About six percent said they will not apply, and a few respondents had already naturalised. 

A German citizenship certificate and passport.

A German citizenship certificate and passport. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Fernando Gutierrez-Juarez

For many people, a huge benefit of citizenship is about gaining freedom of movement. 

“Free movement with the world’s strongest passport is the main goal here,” Khandakar Rahman from Bangladesh, told us. 

Others mentioned that they would feel more integrated – and have course receive full rights to voting. 

Kristian from Norway said the would “finally be an EU citizen, to be able to vote, and also to actually be German”.

READ MORE: What would German citizenship mean to foreign residents?

The Scottish ‘Mannschaft’ set to take on Germany 

As Germany is about to take on Scotland in the opener for UEFA Euro 2024, ad executives for the Scottish soft drink Irn Bru have outdone themselves. 

They’ve launched an advert playing around with the nickname for Germany’s national football – ‘Die Mannschaft’ 

READ MORE: German word of the day – Mannschaft 

I was keen to know what Germans felt about this advert featuring a guy in a kilt talking about how Scotland’s ‘Mannschaft’ may even reach the semis. 

While many Germans thought it was funny, a few pointed out that the advert technically doesn’t use the word correctly. 

One thing for sure is that the Scottish love it. 

SHOW COMMENTS